News Stream

Sarah Lawrence College announced today that prominent alumna Barbara Walters, noted broadcast journalist and author, together with her charitable trust have made a gift of $15 million to establish The Barbara Walters Campus Center on the historic College’s 44-acre campus just north of New York City in Westchester County.

Sarah Lawrence's MFA program for poetry has been singled out by The Writer as a “heavy-hitter” among national programs. In a guide to the best MFA programs for poetry in the country, The Writer highlights the program's “impressive” roster of professors, including 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner Vijay Seshadri, Matthea Harvey, and Myla Goldberg. “One of the biggest attractions of this MFA program is the amount of face time students get with faculty, thanks to bi-weekly one-on-one meetings to discuss the students’ work in depth. Sarah Lawrence also hosts the largest free poetry festival in New York.”

Literature faculty members Nick Mills and Fred Smoler tackle issues raised by the film, American Sniper, from different angles. In his latest opinion piece for The Daily Beast, Mills points to "The Great Gatsby," "In Our Time," and "Mrs. Dalloway" as earlier examples of classic works of fiction that address the problems soldiers face when returning home from war. In his opinion piece for 1st of the Month, Smoler argues that many of American Sniper's harshest critics have missed a number of important points about the war in Iraq to be gleaned from the film.

The poem "Fury," by writing faculty member Tina Chang, is featured in the Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri). Chang writes about the poem: “Fury was the first emotion I felt when I read of the grand jury verdict regarding the Eric Garner case following on the heels of the Michael Brown case."

Sarah Lawrence College announced today that noted philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist Anthony Appiah will deliver the Commencement address to the undergraduate class of 2015 on Friday, May 22, 2015 at 10 a.m. on the campus’ South Lawn.

The Washington Post and numerous major media outlets remember Lesley Gore '68, who passed away on Monday, February 16. She was 68. Gore is best remembered for her hits, "It's My Party," which she recorded when she was only 16, and the feminist anthem, "You Don't Own Me."

Amy Mackie ‘96 is interviewed in Alaska Dispatch Newsabout the "It Could Go Either Way" exhibit currently showing at the Anchorage Museum. Co-creator of the exhibit, Mackie also discusses her much storied career in the arts - a winding journey that now sees her as co-director of "PARSE" in New Orleans.

Geography faculty member Joshua Muldavin is interviewed in a piece for Rolling Stoneconcerning forced evictions in China, and the way in which a number of large American banks have financially supported Chinese real estate companies responsible for what international watchdogs have called a human rights emergency.

Martha Stahl ’97 discusses the path she took in becoming president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood, Montana, and the challenges she faces in light of health care's changing landscape with The Billings Gazette.

Charitable donations to Sarah Lawrence College rose during the 2013-14 fiscal year, reports The Journal News, despite a number of other mid-Hudson Valley institutions suffering declines in donations during the same period.

Emily Franklin ‘94 is one of 19 long-listed for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the world’s richest prize for a single short story. If Franklin's story, Qualities of the Modern Farmer, is judged the winner, she will collect a first prize of £30,000. Previous recipients of the award and shortlisted writers have included the Pulitzer Prize winners Adam Johnson, Junot Diaz, and Elizabeth Strout, the double Man Booker-winner Hilary Mantel, Anthony Doerr, Ali Smith, and New Zealand’s CK Stead.

In a touching story in The Boston Globe, Helen Bryan Garland '47, a consultant for the United Nations, recalls how she reconnected 30 years later with the soldier she wrote letters to during World War II, while she was a student at Sarah Lawrence. That soldier, writer Joe Garland, passed away nearly four years ago, but the kitchen cabinets in her Gloucester home are still bedecked with dozens of Valentine cards Joe sent to his wife over their 30 year marriage.

A photography exhibit by Alec Soth ‘92 at the Sean Kelly Gallery in Manhattan enjoys a glowing review in The Daily Beast. In an interview, Soth recalls how it wasn't until he went to college that he really connected with photography and he discusses how his independent publishing company, Little Brown Mushroom, has started organizing workshops and classes that entice artists from all over the world.

In his latest opinion piece for The Daily Beast, literature faculty member Nick Mills argues that those suffering from Alzheimer's disease deserve better legal options and more assistance rather than simply palliative care when their primary concern is with ending their lives.

The birthday of Alice Walker ‘65 is celebrated in People's World. A noted figure in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements, Walker is the author of numerous books and collections of short stories and poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction for her 1982 novel, "The Color Purple."

The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life,” a workshop and lecture by Dr. Elijah Anderson, one of the nation’s leading urban ethnographers and cultural theorists will take place this week. The workshop, “The N*Word on College Campuses,” will be held on Tuesday, February 10 in the Heimbold Visual Arts Center, Room 208 at 12:30 p.m. The lecture, “The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life" will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Donnelley Theatre. A faculty-only workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, February 11 in the Great Room of the Esther Raushenbush Library at 12:45 p.m.

Trustee Wendy Lipp has been chosen to speak at the annual Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. Throughout her career, Lipp has held a number of prominent jobs in publishing. In 2011, she founded her own independent publishing company, Prashanti Press.

Writing faculty member Vijay Seshadri, recipient of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, is interviewed in DNA India. The Q&A broaches a number of topics, including Seshadri's approach to writing, his views on the role of technology in modern poetry, and Seshadri's concerns that contemporary "language and rhetoric are somewhat impoverished because we're not sufficiently literary."

Shelly Oria MFA ‘07 discusses the impact that Sarah Lawrence College has had on her writing career in Out Magazine. "Sarah Lawrence was probably more helpful to me than most MFA programs are to the writers who attend them, simply because that was where I learned to write in my second language," says Oria. "SLC has been a gift that keeps on giving, and that’s absolutely true. Most of my closest friends are people I went to school with, or my former teachers, or people who went there years before or after I did, who I met in various literary events over the years."

Three genetic counseling students at Sarah Lawrence College have been selected as recipients of the 2014 National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Student Research Project award for their Capstone project which addresses the need for genetic counselors to improve their knowledge and skills in the area of LGBT cultural competency.

Corey Morris MFA '12, has been named editor of the Washington State newspaper, The Vidette. Prior to his new editorial position, Morris worked for the Cody Enterprise, for which his story, “Finding peace 45 years later,” was awarded first place in the best feature story category for the National Newspaper Association’s 2014 Better Newspaper Editorial Contest. His essay, “Carp River,” was published in Crab Orchard Review in 2012 and was listed as a notable essay in the anthology 2013 Best American Essays.

This year's Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest winner is N. West Moss '90, for her short story, "Omeer's Mangoes." Moss is previously the recipient of the Faulkner-Wisdom Award and Diana Woods Memorial Award for Creative Nonfiction. Moss has just completed a collection of short stories titled "Bryant Park Variations," which includes “Omeer’s Mangoes.”

The Loop celebrates the Golden Globe achievements of Sarah Lawrence alumnus Noah Hawley '89, who took home the Golden Globe for Best TV Movie or Mini-Series for FX's Fargo, and alumna Julianna Margulies '89, who was nominated for a Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama, for her role in CBS's The Good Wife. Reporter Joyce Newman writes how Margulies "notes that her ability to analyze scripts and to create roles stems from her academic studies at Sarah Lawrence."

The Poynter Institute reports that Writing faculty member Cathy Park Hong has been named poetry editor of The New Republic. The winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize, Hong has published three collections of poetry and has been teaching at Sarah Lawrence since 2006.

Two mini-courses, “The Anatomy of Catastrophes and Black Swan Events: Warnings Ignored or Misperceived” and “Music and Metaphysical Impulse,” will be offered Wednesday, January 14 through Friday, January 16.

The late Mary Cheever '39, who was a central figure in a famous literary family, is profiled in The New York Times. She was married to leading 20th century author John Cheever and was the mother of writers Benjamin and Susan Cheever. Sara Corbett writes in the Times of the couple's turbulent forty-plus year marriage, Mary Cheever's teaching career, and the publication of her book, The Need for Chocolate and other Poems.

The New York Timesshines a spotlight on the work of Pam Tanowitz MFA '98 as a particular highlight of 2014. "Ms. Tanowitz is the wittiest choreographer since Mark Morris," writes Andrea Mohin for the Times, stating that the Mozartean complexity of the mirrored octet in Tanowitz's new “Heaven on One’s Head” dance program produced a buzz that "lasted for days."

FX’s Fargo, created by Noah Hawley ’89, picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best TV Movie or Mini-Series. Julianna Margulies ‘89 has been recognized for her work in CBS’s The Good Wife with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a TV Series, Drama. Additionally, she has been nominated for a Best Actress in a TV Drama Series SAG Award. See ABC News for a full list of Golden Globe nominees and The Washington Post for a full list of SAG Award nominees.

Alumna Cynthia Weil, co-writer of such hits as “We Gotta Get out of This Place” for The Animals, and “You’ve Lost That Lovin' Feelin'” for The Righteous Brothers, has been interviewed in Publisher's Weekly. Weil discusses a career trajectory that has taken her from Sarah Lawrence into songwriting into her latest incarnation as the author of young-adult fiction. "I majored in theater at Sarah Lawrence, back when it was an all-girls’ school. I thought I would become a director," Weil told the publication of her earlier aspirations while at Sarah Lawrence.

In an Op-Ed in The Advocate, Sarah Lawrence student Moises Serrano highlights the many injustices suffered by undocumented immigrants by describing his own experiences as a victim of bullying at school. His struggle will soon be featured in the upcoming feature-length documentary Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America, which will be released early next year.

Writing faculty member Vijay Seshadri runs through his typical Sunday with The New York Times. Seshadri, who earlier this year won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, discusses writing routines, favorite authors, and the moral conundrum of being an American Football fan.

A collaboration between American puppet artist and Sarah Lawrence College faculty member Tom Lee, his students at Sarah Lawrence College, the students of the Seoul Arts Institute in Seoul, South Korea, and CultureHub at La MaMa present a special work-in-progress showing of The Return on Tuesday, December 9 at 8:30 p.m.

Laura Hercher, faculty member at Sarah Lawrence's Joan H. Marks Human Genetics Program, penned a Letter to the Editor in The New York Times arguing that sorting children into groups based on genetics in order to give them the correct educational resources is a "bad use of science."

Sarah Lawrence students joined many colleges and universities around the nation in showing support for Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by former Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, after a jury did not indict Wilson. For local media coverage, visit News 12 Westchester and Fios 1 News.

Sarah Lawrence College alumna and trustee emerita Suzanne Wright '98 discusses her work with Autism Speaks in the November addition of WAG Magazine. Wright founded Autism Speaks over nine years ago with her husband, Bob, after their grandson was diagnosed with autism. The organization now employs 200 worldwide, and invests over $500 million into medical and science research, cutting edge projects, fellowships and initiatives.

Composer, vocalist, dancer, choreographer, director, and filmmaker Meredith Monk ‘64 is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the start of her professional career this year. According to The New York Times, her groundbreaking work, “which has inspired artists as different as Merce Cunningham and Björk,” ranges from unique vocal recordings to modern theatre performances.

The New York Timesrecently reviewed two works in which theatre faculty members have prominent roles: “The Oldest Boy” features Ernest Abuba in a lead role, and “The Object Lesson” is directed by David Neumann.

A new study, being conducted by Adam D. Brown, PhD and Kim T. Ferguson, PhD, psychologists at Sarah Lawrence, aims to examine whether families that know more about the events that took place in each other’s lives during deployment will exhibit better psychological and behavioral wellbeing. Based on findings from studies of non-military families, that the researchers reviewed extensively, Brown and Ferguson say that although efforts are being made to address the psychological challenges facing military families there is a major gap in understanding how families talk to each other about the time that they were separated. Like other programs aimed at teaching skills to ease the transition to civilian life, Brown and Ferguson believe their data will inform the development of programs to help guide family conversations around this issue. It is their hope that the findings of this study will shed light on how certain ways of discussing deployment can ease the transition from combat to civilian life and strengthen the entire military family.

Life Sentences, a film with an unusual perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will be screenedas part of the 8th Annual Other Israel Film Festival on Sunday, November 9 at 4 p.m. in the Donnelley Film Theatre of the Heimbold Visual Arts Center. The film, directed by Nurit Kedar and Yaron Shani will be screened in Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles, followed by a Q&A session. This event is free and open to the public.

The Alwan Arab Music Ensemble, featuring a broad range of Arab, Middle Eastern, and Western music will perform on November 13 at 5 p.m. in Reisinger Concert Hall. The performance is free and open to the public.

Within Between, a performance piece by John Jasperse ’85, has been honored at the 2014 New York Dance and Performance Awards, as reported in The New York Times. These awards, commonly referred to as the "Bessies," are named for the legendary artist Bessie Schönberg, who directed the Sarah Lawrence College dance program for many years.

A group of leading scholars, policy-makers, and activists from around the country will convene for a major conference November 14 – 15 to discuss how liberal arts institutions should respond to in­creased inequality in the United States. Sarah Lawrence College, known as one of the country’s most progressive institutions of higher education, will host the interdisciplinary conference.

El Pais notes that Spanish faculty member Claudia Salazar is this year's winner of the “Premio de las Americas,” a prestigious literary prize awarded in Latin America, for her novel La sangre de la aurora.

The New York Times reports that writing faculty member Brian Morton’s new book, Florence Gordon, has been selected as a finalist in literary journal Kirkus Reviews’ first annual book competition for fiction. The book was also reviewed on NPR's﻿Fresh Air.

Two students in Sarah Lawrence College’s Human Genetics Graduate Program have received an award from the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) for a project that will address the lack of ethnic and racial diversity in the field. Kara Anstett of Yonkers and Sharon Chen of Port Washington presented their project in a plenary session to the 3,000 attendees at the 2014 national conference of the NSGC in New Orleans in September.

Sarah Lawrence College has recently received two important grants – one to build on curricular work in the area of arts and technology and the other to set the stage for new scholarship about the civil rights movement.

Posted: Monday, September 29, 2014

Creative and Performing Arts, Faculty, History and the Social Sciences, SLC

Sarah Lawrence College's decision to adopt a standardized-test optional admission policy has led to the College's return to the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges list, as reported by The Washington Post.

Sarah Lawrence College has been recognized for overall performance in fundraising efforts by the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education), the association of college and university advancement, alumni relations and communications and marketing professionals.